The invention relates to an oil filter wrench and, more particularly, to an oil filter wrench which is convertible from a large jaw opening size to a small jaw opening size.
Oil filter wrenches or oil filter wrench pliers are available in the marketplace in the form of a pliers having a pair of handles with integral jaws. The jaws serve as arcuate gripping members which fit around a cylindrical oil filter to effect removal from an engine. Heretofore, oil filter wrench pliers have been available in various sizes depending upon the diameter of the cylindrical oil filter to be removed from an engine. For example, pliers capable of removing cylindrical or canister type oil filters having a diameter in the range of two (2) to three (3) inches would be effected by a smaller pliers construction. Larger diameter filters, for example those having three (3) to four (4) inch diameter cylinders, would be removed by a separately sized pliers wherein the jaws are larger and spaced further apart.
It has been recommended that oil filter wrench pliers be convertible or changeable so that the pivot point associated with the connection between the separate handles forming the pliers could be altered thereby enabling the oil filter wrench to accommodate large as well as small diameter cylindrical oil filters. There has remained, however, a need for a wrench construction for oil filters convertible from a first diameter to a second diameter wherein the handles, which are manually gripped, may be generally uniformly spaced when the pliers accommodates variously sized cylindrical oil filters. Thus, there has remained a need to provide an improved design for a convertible oil filter wrench which enables gripping a wide range of diameters of cylindrical canisters or oil filters.